Civic leaders call for calm as rumours fly

Police and civic leaders in Birmingham yesterday issued fresh appeals for calm during another day of rumours and speculation that threatened to spark fresh trouble between the city's Pakistani and African-Caribbean communities.

There were unsubstantiated claims that large numbers of young Pakistani men were ready to enter the fray and have only been held back by the orders of their religious leaders.

Last night the MP for the area, Khalid Mahmood, demanded that those who claim that a young black woman was raped by Asian men either provide evidence that a crime took place or help to calm the situation.

"The Home Office have made concessions on the immigration issues [concerning the alleged rape victim], police have given assurances as well and would give the alleged victim total anonymity. Nobody has come forward," he said. "This can't be allowed to continue on rumour. They have to produce the evidence or back down and say it was a mistake."

Within the African-Caribbean community, activists also sought to calm tensions. But efforts to impose normality were hampered by a succession of rumours and incidents, all of which heightened fears that the violence may intensify. Reports of violence around the city were seized upon by residents, and one Asian taxi driver was mugged while television cameras filmed the assault.

Despite police assurances that a mixed-race man who was shot dead in the early hours of Monday was not fired upon by police - and ballistic evidence to support that - black community figures voiced scepticism. Confused reports of the stabbing of a 24-year-old white man by one of two black men more than a mile away from the seat of Saturday disturbances, also raised concerns.

One activist said: "I am hearing reports that there are busloads of Pakistanis on their way from Leicester. I have had calls from Yardies in London asking if we need help, and have heard that the Nation of Islam are ready to come up. No one knows how much of this is true, but we are in a dangerous situation."

Maxie Hayles, chairman of the Birmingham Racial Attacks Monitoring Group, said: "We are appealing to everyone to keep their heads. There has been a lot of damage done and it is going to take time to repair it."

But the angry mood in the black community was further inflamed by the black newspaper the Voice, which reported on its front page the alleged rape of a black girl by Pakistani men and published an editorial urging black shoppers to avoid Asian-run stores.

Mahmood Hussain, a councillor who represents Lozells, the district where the main rioting took place, said a series of urgent cross-community meetings were now taking place. "We need to bring some calm to the area. We are in a situation where a minority are taking advantage of this tension. I don't know if there will be any more trouble, but I hope not."

Those who experienced the Handsworth riots that scarred the city two decades ago are particularly keen to avoid a schism.

One shopkeeper, Nazir Ahmed, saw his father's shop burnt down then. "We rebuilt things and Lozells has come a long way since those dark days," he said. "Now is a time for us as a community to show solidarity."

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